Aspiring to be excellent makes you a good leader as it shows a capability for strategic thought, defining and implementing a vision, making a job easier, more efficient and effective. Every great business leader can generate additional revenue or cost savings for their company._x000D_
Becoming excellent requires the desire and action to follow it through. There are many established methods of excellence: benchmarking, target setting, supply chain and market analysis, employee suggestions and knowledge sharing forums. In BHP Billiton, practices benchmarking is a key tool in generating improvements for functional areas such as processing, mine operations and mine planning._x000D_
Practices Benchmarking involves organisational and technical questions that allow the site to self-assess their maturity and generate a prioritised improvement path. Not only does it benchmark and identify gaps, but the approach also facilitates networking, education and team building._x000D_
For new leaders it is important to remember that you are not alone. Chances are your problem has been solved before. Networks - internal, external, formal and informal can get you started and often save you time and effort._x000D_
Any leader can achieve success in excellence through a proper process of problem formulation, data and analysis. Again, using key players can make the process more effective. It is important to remember that the people side of the solution is the key to success and that monitoring will ensure the solution will work._x000D_
In the words of BHP Billition's CEO, Chip Goodyear: Excellence is a mind set. It's something that comes when people get rewarded for thinking outside the box and applying their skill and knowledge. It happens, not in $50 million chunks, but in hundred thousand and million and $2 million chunks._x000D_
When you get 35 000 people thinking that way, then you've really got something going.